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Treeleaf transcribing and translation project - be a contributor! ;-)

Hey friends,

We are starting a project to translate the main contents of the site (manuals, introductory material, "sit-a-long" videos, and others) in order to make the content available to people with hearing disabilities, non-English speakers and others who for some reason can not understand English of the contents in text and audio on the community.

For this, we need volunteers to meet the project at different stages, initially the following:

1- Transcribing the entire audio of the introductory videos, this transcript will be the basis for our translation work and subtitling of these videos (summarized here) while simultaneously other people translates the Basic Zazen manual here on the site into several languages​​.

1.1 - The transcripted texts will be revised, to assure content fidelity.

2- Then, the members of the translation team will translate it and send it back to the one who will put the subtitles on the video (fitting the sentences into the video times, etc.).

3- Finally, the subtitles will be put on Youtube, hopefully translated in several languages.

We need native English speakers to get the job of transcribing the audio of the introductory videos. They'll listen and write down the phrases that are transcribing from the video into a text file (. Txt) in different paragraphs. That will be our "transcribing team". And we'll need people native/proficient in other languages: they'll be the "translating team".

So, I ask members that have the time for this job that tell me here or through private message, informing the native language, proficiency in English (native / speaker) and availability.

Isn't it exciting?

What do you think?

Thank you!

Gassho,

Marcos

Last edited by Marcos; 08-28-2013 at 04:28 PM.

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

I've already sent PMs to all of you who gratefully expressed your will to contribute.

Thanks, hope we can do a good work together.

Hope the "translators" "take a step ahead", too... ;-)

Gassho,

Marcos

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

Well, I'm happy to tell you we made our first transcription/translation. The "Welcome to Treeleaf" video was transcribed by Risho and I've subtitled it over the video and translated it to portuguese. I had uploaded a copy of it to my personal Youtube account (for we have to have admin rights on the youtube account in which the video are hosted), here comes the link for your apreciation:
. (I've taken off the direct link because it seems to embed the content here.)

There you can see it in English and Portuguese.

To see the subtitles, be sure to activate it on by clicking the captions icon at the bottom of the video. (the first option on the left of the "cog"). If you want the timed ".srt" subtitle file in english for translating on another languages, let me know.

If there are any suggestions on correcting or enhancing the captions, please tell me via PM.

Thank you and let's continue

Gassho,

Marcos

Last edited by Marcos; 08-29-2013 at 01:52 PM.
Reason: edited because video was not visible as its privacy settings were set to "private". Now it's public.

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

Hi,
I can translate the "Welcome to Treeleaf" video into German if you let me have the transcription.
I cannot do anything fancy with youtube though; once I give you the lines, you'll have to take it from there

i can do it in french (native) and italian for the introducing video if you send me the English text, Taigu can do it better but I know how many works he has to do so I can do it.
It's always possible he has the final word after my translation.

Gassho

Myoshin

Myoshin 妙 心
"A person who receives the Buddhist Precepts enters the state of Buddha at once. They stand at the same level as Gautama Buddha. We can say they are a child of the Buddha." Jundo

Here goes the first "Zazen for beginners" video, transcribed, subtitled and translated into portuguese-br too!

Thanks everybody. More to come!

For the people willing to collaborate on the translations, I'll be sending a PM as soon as possible, ok? thank you for joining!

Gassho,

Marcos

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

Haha, this is the first thing that came to mind when I read the initial post... "Who will pick up the blender video!?"

Thank you for your efforts here. I'd love to contribute but I do not want to over-commit myself. One area that I may be able to help with is on newly released videos. I already convert them to MP3 and post them to podcast...it'd be just an extra step for me to then transcribe them for you.

Thoughts?

Dokan

Originally Posted by mpdalles

Here goes the first "Zazen for beginners" video, transcribed, subtitled and translated into portuguese-br too!

Thanks everybody. More to come!

For the people willing to collaborate on the translations, I'll be sending a PM as soon as possible, ok? thank you for joining!

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

Beg you sorry for my little absence, but had some personal matters to resolve, a little bypass heart surgery last year; also, I thought I had lost all of this material I'll describe forth. But everything's flowing!

And now I just want to continue translating the Videos here as I began this project with some good contributors and the good-will of you all.

So, to continue this, I want to ask who's willing to help?

Right now, we have 2 videos trascribed and translated; the first one is the "Welcome To Treeleaf" video, transcribed by Risho (a major contributor in the transcribing process), subtitled in four languages: English (Risho), Brazilian Portuguese (Me), French (Myoshin) and German (Nindo). The second one is the "Zazen for Beginners part I", which is translated and subtitled in English and Brazilian Portuguese by now.

And just now we already have the transcribed text for the second, third and sixth videos on this "Zazen For Beginners" series, as we already have the "Tour Of Treeleaf" transcription, too. I'll do the "technical job" to adjust these text to the captions and will be releasing them here in this topic (of course with the approval of the teachers here) soon.

Some people told me in private (in 2013!) they were finishing the transcribing/translation they've been assigned. I'm asking you please send me this material as soon as you can for we to continue this little "Samu".

My first goal is to finish at least all the 24 videos of the "Zazen For Beginners" series, as they're a (the?!) vital part of Zen.

I'm asking for help of the old contributors of this project, too. Please contact me inbox or by whatever means you want and let's have it done! ;-)

For those who offered help, please contact me, too.

What do you think?!

--off-topic:

And hope FINALLY this year I can apply for Jukai and be more participative.

--

Gassho.

Marcos

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

slowly but surely I am learning Khmer because my girlfriend is Cambodian. Eventually I believe I will have enough proficiency to translate it with the help of my girlfriends mother (and a native Khmer speaker) if we would like that.

Well, you have truly dusted off an old project from a couple of years ago! It is lovely that you have remembered this (and James too, good luck with your Khmer).

Please let me know what happens, and it would be helpful to have. Thank you for remembering this and considering to continue the project. I hope you can get footnotes for at least some of the basic videos.

I dont know if it is a coincidence, haven't really thought of this until now when I saw on a Facebook friend status that today (abril the 8th here in Brasil) they celebrate the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha. Is that so in the rest of the (buddhist) world?

Well, now I think' this is indeed an auspicious date to take the project along (again) and (maybe) benefit someone else from these good instructions there on Zazen.

Thanks, Jundo, hope now we can finish all the 24. I'll keep in touch.

Gassho.

Marcos

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

Well, in Japan April 8th is the Buddha's Birthday, although most of the rest of Asia will celebrate in May.

However, every moment is too.

Thanks for showing this ineffable Truth.

_/|\_

Just today I wrote this Haikai:

"Sitted on the Throne
Of Lotus
I Realize the I-and-all-beings."

Last edited by Marcos; 04-08-2015 at 07:57 PM.

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

Hi! I didn't know this project was going on.
I thought many times to ask Jundo for permission to add spanish subtitles to the "Zazen for Beginners" series but I didn't dare to ask.
I consider them such a valuable tool and resources like this in spanish are scarce if found.
I think it would be good to set milestones so as not to procrastinate a lot, while also not pushing ourselves with impossible schedules.
You know, the middle way.

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

I've actually been working on this on and off in my free time for a while without having ever known of this thread. I have a bit of material in Arabic (I'm not a native speaker, just a student with a few years practice under my belt, and I work as an Arabic translator for the US Military.) I would love to see the English transcripts as that would definitely help me out! (My knowledge of proper spelling of Latin transliterated Japanese and East Asian religious and philosophical terminology is lacking, lol). But yes, I would love to translate into Arabic!

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

I appreciate so much all your efforts and energy. Thank you for the whole Sangha. I did not ask him, and Marcos just took this on from his heart, but it is a good project.

One concern, perhaps, is about the translations. I speak as a translator myself for the last 20 years (my day job, Japanese to English). Any translations should be done by native speakers into their native languages for best result or, at least, the translation should be checked and edited by a native speaker. For example, when I translate from Japanese to English (the work I undertake is almost exclusively so), the result is usually quite accurate and well expressed (if I may say so. ) But, because I am not a native Japanese, when I translate from English into Japanese, the result is very rough and unnatural generally. Native speakers should always translate only into their native languages for proper result and best quality, with the only exception being the minority of translators who are truly "bi-cultural" individuals raised in both languages to the level of being native in both.

One work-around, however, is to have a high-level bilingual native speaker (high level in both English and their own language) proof, correct and polish a translation by a non-native. If that is done for the final product, then many of the problems can also be avoided. Maybe we can work that way?

Sorry to be so sensitive to the matter, but it is my work and I read unusual translations from and into Japanese every day. Here are a few funny ones from Japan and surrounding places, and some are roll on the floor funny:

I understand your concern. Yesterday I was just thinking of it! How, for example, can I guarantee that a translation not done by me, in another language I don't know, is correct?

Initially, I thought on the process of those translations including several phases; I'll explain: first, I asked native english speakers to send me a transcription (in english) in a plain-text file (like a windows notepad ".txt" file), where each sentence spoken by the "narrator" is separated line by line. I asked the transcribers to indicate between square brackets "[ ]" when there's noises, or something relevant to the comprehension of the narration by hearing-impaired folks. For example: "[blender stops]".

Then, I download the original video from Youtube through some specific website, usually in the "mp4" format.

So, I use a specific software to open the video file and the "raw" transcription file. Watching the video in real time, I assign the timing on which each sentence have to appear. So why don't I just transcribe it by myself? I don't feel secure to do so, as I have some proficiency in english but I'm not a native speaker...

Finishing this phase, I have the first subtitle (*.srt) file, the english subtitle, which contains the "timing" above each originally transcribed sentence, separated in lines.

That first subtitle file is the material I give to the other translators, whose translates only the phrases (without touching the timing) in their own native (or so) language. So, they´re all translating from english into their own languages.

Usually I do the first translation to Brazilian portuguese (pt-br) following the same process, but I agree sometimes is not so easy to keep the "flow" of the narration translating word-by-word exactly, so I have to find similar words to convey the message (still I don't use slangs) on a way I know brazilian or portuguese speakers will understand better. So, kind of an adaptation occurs. But technical words, explanations and the like are kept the way they are. Of course I translate some words, like "Buddha" to "Buda" (which is the way we speak the historical name of the Honored One here).

After people sent me the translation files, I just upload them to my personal account on Youtube along with the subtitle files, just to show you. But to show you the results I have to keep the video as public in my account... hope there's some way to workaround this. But for now... technical issues!

As everyone is volunteering I feel I can't (and I wouldn't) push people to send the videos faster, but it surely should be nice to have people volunteering, commiting themselves and establishing possible goals (like 2 videos per week, I guess).

Hope we can work together to achieve this.

Gassho

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

After people sent me the translation files, I just upload them to my personal account on Youtube along with the subtitle files, just to show you. But to show you the results I have to keep the video as public in my account... hope there's some way to workaround this. But for now... technical issues!

Thank you again, Marcos. It sounds like a plan!

I would just comment on the technical Youtube point here. It is possible to go into the video manager/edit for each video and select "unlisted" (which is halfway between "public" and "private"). That means that if you send us privately the URL we can see and use the result, but it is not generally searchable on youtube.

Searching here, I found these "guidelines" I made (and sent) to people willing to help with transcriptions.

"Guidelines for transcription:
------------------------------------

1 - Transcribe every spoken sentence or relevant sound in the order that the same happens in the same line of the text file. When there is a pause, transcribe the next sentence on the next line.
eg:
Line 1: "This is how we must practice Shikantaza."
Line 2: "Shikantaza is the type of meditation we practice ..."

PS.: By "relevant sound" I mean the ones directly related to the teaching being teached. eg. "[sound of hammer being putting down]", this applies to the next item.

2- Transcribe noise, relevant sounds into brackets ( [] ), describing them as precisely as possible. This will serve as a description of the soundscape for those who have hearing impairment.
Ex: "[blender noise]" "[laughs]" "[birds chirping]" "[whistle]" "[car honking]."

3- If the noise happens concurrently to a sentence being spoken, display it next to the phrase. If the sound persists, keep it next to the phrase being transcribed.
Ex: "[blender noise] Can you hear?" "[blender noise] This is what goes on in your mind."

4- When finished, review the contents for any errors, typos, etc..

5- Save the contents into a text file in the format: "[videoname]_[language]_[today's date].txt".
Ex: zazenforbeginners1_english_08282013.txt

6- Attach the file and send in an email to mpdalles@gmail.com, indicating in the subject "[tttp]" and the file name mentioned in the previous step.
Ex: "SUBJECT: [tttp] zazenforbeginners1_english_08282013.txt".

7- Notify me via PM, please.

Thank you!"

What do you think, should we continue like this?

Last edited by Marcos; 04-17-2015 at 05:26 PM.
Reason: edited because the guidelines changed a little.

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

Translators are most welcome, but we are in need of more TRANSCRIBERS (preferentially native english speakers) to help us finish the transcription of the videos series, which (seems to me) is the most sensitive part of the work.

Is anyone interested? please PM me or manifest here.

--

Jundo: what do you think if I send you the raw transcription files so eventual mistakes be corrected before translation?

Gassho,

Marcos

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

Hi folks,
I have transcribed one of the episodes for Marcos and found it to be a wonderful experience. I found that listening to Jundo's teaching repeatedly in 3 sec bursts, writing the words down by hand, then typing them up on the computer was very, very enriching. I can highly recommend this samu . Thank you to Jundo for the teaching and to Marcos for his selfless endeavour.
Gassho,
David

Thank you Lisa (already PM'd you, many thanks!) and David (thank you for your efforts here).

thank YOU for your selfless endeavour!

Thank you my friends, let's keep going.

Gassho,

Last edited by Marcos; 04-10-2015 at 06:07 PM.

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

I'm happy to show you more three videos, all results of the efforts you put here in this work.

Thank you all and let's keep going.

ps.: Be sure to select "english" on "subtitles" (click the cogwheel near the right inferior corner - it should appear when you click "play".)

Zazen for Beginners II

Last edited by Marcos; 04-12-2015 at 02:56 AM.

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

Now we need people to translate that, too! Don't worry, it's really easy and a lot of fun (and learning!)

Also we are putting the Vows of the Bodhisattva into practice (I guess it is "ok" to say that, though I haven't had taken them formally yet), for the benefit of all sentient beings. Maybe for some people this is very special, as maybe they can't hear... or they haven't a good comprehension in english...

So, come together

Gassho!

Gassho,
Marcos (former username: mpdalles)

***SAttODAY***

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"

"Does anyone else have a question? If so, let him ask now! But
the instant you open your mouth you’re already way off. Why is this? Don’t
you know that Venerable Śākyamuni said, ‘Dharma is separate from words,
because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions’?"